BERA 2003, EDINBURGH

September 12, 2003

Tortoise or Hare? British Interest in Education Abroad.

Almut R Sprigade

University of Oxford

Department of Educational Studies

15 Norham Gardens, Oxford OX2 6PY

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Tortoise or Hare? british interest in education abroad, 1800 – 1840 BERA 2003

A R Sprigade University of Oxford

Tortoise or Hare? British Interest in Education Abroad, 1800 – 1840

Ongoing research

Do not quote without permission of the author

Introduction

My PhD project seeks to investigate aspects of early educational comparison during the first decades of the 19th century. Set against a historical background of social, political, and economic change, the research draws upon the particular dynamics that characterise the expansion of elementary education in England, 1800 - 1839. I set out to document primary sources for educational comparison printed during the first four decades of the 19th century and then investigated how this information was used to argue for or against a legislation of elementary education in England.

Most of the research into the history of educational comparison focuses on the second half of the 19th century. Sometimes, it seems as if the lack of early state legislation in England, one of the main topics in the history of comparative education, has made it more difficult to assume an active English interest in early educational comparison. I suggest, however, that from the early 19th century onwards, educational provision and practices abroad have been part of an argument deployed in the political and public debate about educational legislation. The political stalemate on the legislation of education, a worsening social situation and a limit to voluntary educational provision, gave rise to an externalisation of educational arguments, thereby opening up political argument to alternative practices and experiences abroad. Today, I am offering a first glimpse into the publicly available information on education abroad and the way it was employed in debates and publications during in the first decades of the 19th century.

Part One

From 1810 – 1840, a total of forty-nine short items, often comprising not more than a few lines, appeared in the daily newspaper The Times. Half of these items inform the reader about recent education news in Europe, the other half contains for the most part information about the Americas and the British Dominions overseas. One main topic of these short notices in The Times during the early decades (23 articles from 1810 to 1824) is the spread of the method of mutual instruction (the ‘Bell’ and ‘Lancaster’ method) throughout the world, and especially in France. It is interesting to note that there is no mention of the Prussian or any other German system of education save for a short note about the negative attitude of the Bavarian government towards the system of mutual instruction on May 10th, 1819.[[1]]

The only other item on education in Germany contains statistical information, in this instance about punishments dealt out by a schoolmaster in Swabia.[[2]] It is interesting to note that most of the pieces dealing with education abroad in The Times include some form of statistical information. In its simplest form, a few lines, notices mention the number of students instructed in schools and enrolment ratios; in its more sophisticated items the reader finds, for example, arguments about the problems a better educated Spanish public may cause to its uneducated government. [[3]]

The rise of social statistics and data collection in the early 19th century is visible in most of these sources. Statistical information about the social and educational situation of the poor in England published during the early 19th century often seems to include structured investigation of literacy rates amongst the poor and criminal classes of English society, as the publication of surveys in the Journal of the Statistical Society of London indicates. This journal, established in 1838, regularly published articles on education. The editor of the journal obtained information and articles not only from the societies’ national members and other national societies, but also from international honorary members, correspondents, and societies. The first two volumes of the journal contained 28 articles about other countries, nine of which focused on educational provision as their main concern. These articles dealt with educational comparison in various ways, one example here are two publications of Kay’s observations on a number of Orphan’s Asylums in Holland.[[4]] In his articles, Kay did not only rely on his own observation but employed statistical reports and publications to validate his description of the situation.

One further example of early educational comparison is entitled On the Decline of Popular Instruction in Belgium, written in 1840 by Rawson.[[5]] This article investigated the outcomes of a change in Belgian legislation towards a voluntary system of education and concluded:

The example of Belgium may perhaps be useful to us; the Belgians, who have had experience of the system which we dread, beg that it may be restored to them...(Rawson, 1840, p.396)

One year earlier, in 1839, the Quarterly Review, a periodical close to Tory views and politicians, published Hayward’s review of publications on Austria.[[6]] Throughout the review, Hayward employed statistical data extracted from the publications under review to offer structured information about the system of education in Austria, from elementary to higher education. He used a comparative view on the provisions to enhance understanding rather than to rank educational provision in various countries.

Another review, printed in 1833, this time the Whig-oriented Edinburgh Review, displayed skill in investigating educational statistics and state legislation of educational provision. Pillans, a supporter of compulsory schooling and expert on the provision of education on the Continent (see his evidence before the Select Committee on the state of education, 1834)[[7]], reviewed contemporary publications, including Cousin’s report on Prussia, the ideas of the French Educational minister, Guizot, on the education law in France as well as the edition of the French Education Law of the same year. He analysed the need for and feasibility of a systematic introduction of national education and data collection by using statistical information, inferring from the poor quality of English data the need for a central collection of information as conducted on the continent:

We cannot deny ourselves the melancholy satisfaction of comparing these accounts of English popular education, so inaccurate or so discouraging, with what is done in Prussia. The contrast is a humbling, but ought to be a useful one for England. [..] All its statements and numbers being taken from official documents issued by the Ministry of Public Instruction, after being carefully verified, their correctness is absolute and unimpeachable. (Pillans, 1833, p.9)

Although Pillans highlighted the advantages of education systems in Continental Europe throughout his article, his sensitivity to political circumstances and national characteristics was remarkable. He did not simply demand an adoption of the Prussian or French education system and law into English structures but methodically analysed the political circumstances and powers and then constructed an ‘educational reality’ based on statistical figures rather than embarking on borrowing a continental model:

The results, therefore, as given by M. Cousin, are valuable, not merely as indicating with certainty what is done for the education of the people in Prussia, but as generalizations of facts, establishing principles and conclusions to which we may appeal, in all attempts that may hereafter be made to clear the wide and dreary interval that separates us from the perfection of that model, with is not the beau idéal, but the beautiful reality we ought to imitate. (Pillans, 1833, p.9)

Critical views on statistics so far had been employed by the authors to dismiss political claims and to improve the process and method of data collection about the provision of education. The journals under review held some interesting examples where writers displayed very negative views on statistical data and projections. Negative to the extreme is the following quote, taken from a scathing critique against the use of foreign data in the Reports of the Select Committee appointed to Inquire into the Education of the Lower Orders in the Metropolis, printed in the Quarterly Review in 1818: [[8]]

In the course of this progress they would probably have taken opportunities of comparing the plans of our Naval and Military Academies with those of the Ecole Politechnique and the Ecole Militaire of our neighbours; they would no doubt have suggested from the North, improvements in our Latin prosody; and would have introduced from Hofwyl the practice of chanting hymns by moonlight, and of studying botany at the tail of the plough. […] Whether such an investigation would have answered any better purpose than that of furnishing materials for an amusing appendix to an occasional pamphlet during the recess; or whether, in good truth, an 'Inquiry into Education in General' would have been at all more practicable or more useful than an inquiry into Commerce in general, or into Property in general, or into Literature in general, are questions upon which again we are contended to leave the decision to the plain common sense of mankind; remarking only, that those persons have shown themselves to be the best friends to any practical object, who by stripping it off such preposterous additions have rendered its execution possible. (Quarterly Review, 1818, pp.515-516)

Part two

These are but a few of the available examples of publications indicating an interest in education and an up-to-date knowledge about provision in other countries and the use of this knowledge in arguments during the early 19th century. Sometimes it even came with a readymade reading list, as in this case, where Brougham in 1818 informed the parliamentary audience [[9]]:

Several tracts have been written upon the subject; the best of which is entitled, “Rapport fait à S.M.I. L’Empereur Alexandre sur l’Etablissement de Hofwyl.” It purports to be the work of the Count of Capo D’Istria, but was in fact written entirely by Mr. C. Pictet, of Geneva, who has paid great attention to the plans of Mr. Fellenberg, and examined them carefully in different stages of their progress. The work of Mr. Rengger deserves also to be consulted; and Mr. Fellenberg himself has published some tracts in German. All these publication are to be had at the bookseller Paschoud’s, in Geneva and Paris. (Brougham reported in The Times, 15 September 1818)

It is highly useful to look at The Times’ publication of Parliamentary proceedings, as they – in contrast to Hansard – were available to a broader readership and could make them familiar with political arguments, including educational ones. Most of the political debates printed in The Times and reviewed here fall into the period following 1835. In this time of heightened educational debate and controversy, parliamentarians brought up a number of suggestions concerning the legal status and provision of education in England. Most of the speakers compared and contrasted features of educational systems in the various European countries and the United States of America, some of them even went as far as to suggest the adoption of some of these features. It was in these debates that education in Prussia and France came to the fore; almost all speakers drew upon the example of German/Prussian and French educational legislation and centrally administered provision:

France, by the law of 1834, had adopted it; it was in use in every one of the states of Germany, from 1802 to 1834; in Russia it had advanced, stage after stage, to its present excellence and efficiency; Sweden had her local boards and committees; Denmark her councils, inspectors, and secretaries; in Holland, as the house was aware, and even in the states of America, had such a system been adopted with success. His great object was to have, if possible, an united system of education; but, no matter what happened, to have education. (Wyse reported in The Times, 20 June 1839)[[10]]

In these debates, a number of politicians used statistical estimates of the population, available within the census data and other statistical enquiries, to argue for changes in the provision of elementary education. Parliamentarians such as Wyse compared current rates of attendance against a target, and, in combination with the achievements of other counties, concluded that:

When it was stated, and not disputed, that one-fifth of the people ought to be at school and receiving instruction, and when they found that in this country not more than one-fifteenth of the population received any sort of education, could they doubt, when they saw the progress which other nations were making in the improvement of the people, that the time was come for that house and for the Government to adopt every means in their power to extend the means of instruction and improvement to all classes of the community? (Wyse reported in The Times, 13 February 1839)[[11]]

In general, The Times’ parliamentary reports included cautious suggestions and comparisons rather than the bold sweeping statements. Sometimes, however, readers were confronted with very strong arguments:

A joint system was adopted in Prussia and in Austria, where differences of religion prevailed as extensively as in England, and he could not see what was to prevent England from adopting a plan of instruction which had been found so beneficial in those nations. (Wyse reported in The Times, 13 February 1839)